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ChaosLight Makes Chainmail 8: Catching Up

I think we're on number eight now. I've been doing mostly boring stuff on the shirt, but got some side projects done in the meantime. Let's start with those.

I'm going to be going to Pax East this year, and the group I'm going with have commissioned some badge lanyards.

What you see here is a weave called half-persian 4-in-1, with a closer look here. It's a semi-decorative chain with a very slight chirality, and it's also considered one of the hardest weaves to start, due essentially to the fact that new rings go behind two old rings, and in front of one old and one new ring. It's really hard to explain, but I've come up wit a system that involves a bit of wire to keep everything in alignment while I'm starting it.

Here you can see both the main weave of a commission in white, blue, and purple, and the attachment point for another one in bronze and black. On the left-hand one, you can see where each ring of one line passes through four of the other: two through the 'top' arc and two through the bottom arc. The attachment point is something called Byzantine chain, with spiraled rosettes.

Some smaller works: a couple of earring sets in something called Rondo, a couple of bracelets in something called Stepping Stone, a small bronze ring made of half-persian 4-in-1, a pendant on a chain of european 4-in-1, and a handflower.

[url=https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-vynNumC4iXU/Tz6Sp1GE5bI/AAAAAAAAAE4/U6NlSh84y8c/s887/Photo+Nov+29%2C+12+04+28+AM.jpg]This is Rondo. It's composed of a backbone of large rings, ornamentation in medium-sized rings and accents in small rings, as shown here,and here.

When last I spoke to you all, I was ordering rings. After a point, I got tired of that and started making my own rings for a couple of reasons. I wanted to branch out into jewelry, and it's easier to find craft wire than pre-cut rings. I can also make whatever sizes I want on the fly. You need a power drill and a mandrel, and you basically wind the wire around a rod of the right thickness so you get a coil, then cut, clip, or saw that coil into individual rings. I'll go into the detail in a later post.

I wound up taking it in a little, as you might be able to tell from the close-up. You should be able to see a downward-pointing triangle shape where the weave is disrupted just a bit. But for the most part, it's long, boring, tedious and uninteresting work. Also, I ran out of high-grade steel wire, and the reel of galvy I picked up from home depot to replace it just isn't structurally strong enough to support the weight of what I already have. I'm going to expand it down to the point on the triangle, then trim the edges with silicon bronze.

I'm also seriously considering making a cape and attaching with magnets, so if anyone has any tops, I'd love to hear them.

It's a lot more mechanical skill than artistic, actually. I can't draw a straight line even with the aid of a ruler, but chainmail is much more about skill in planning, spatial reasoning and patience than strictly-speaking artistic skill. In my next update, I'll post some how-to articles for some of the things I've shown you so far.

It's a lot more mechanical skill than artistic, actually. I can't draw a straight line even with the aid of a ruler, but chainmail is much more about skill in planning, spatial reasoning and patience than strictly-speaking artistic skill. In my next update, I'll post some how-to articles for some of the things I've shown you so far.

I know its been a few months but I just wanted to say great job. I did a little bit of chainmail making when I was a kid and it was pretty tough